Hidden Senju Compounds

Naruto age: 5

(A few months later in spring)

Shizune went through the dishes in the sink, washing and wiping them up before placing them neatly on the shelves. She hummed happily, enjoying the calm and quiet house while going through her chores.

She loved how the past years had been so stagnant and stable in their lives ever since her master had adopted Naruto into her life. Now no longer did she gamble or drink her sorrows and fortunes away, instead, her whole attention was on raising and training her son so that he'll be able to protect himself when she's not there to shield him from the dangers lurking outside the safe walls within their estates.

"Naruto!?" she heard Tsunade's voice ringing through the house. Her gaze turned back when the sounds of footsteps became louder and louder before Tsunade appeared through the entrance with a small frown marring her face.

"Shizune…?" she mumbled, half questioning and half stating the fact as if she wasn't too keen on finding her here.

"What's the matter Lady Tsunade?" she asked, clearly seeing the worry and concern etched all over her face. Tsunade's worried hazelnut eyes focused on her female apprentice with a stern look, startling her a bit at the guarded gaze she held.

"Where's Naruto Shizune? For the life of me, I can't find the boy anywhere…" she spoke in irritation and a little annoyance making the raven-haired girl giggle. She could see the woman had just woken up from a nap, seeing her flowing and disheveled blonde hair along with her puffy eyes, and she was no doubt annoyed by not finding her prankster son.

"Naruto went out into the forests an hour ago, my lady, he looked quite determined, as if he was trying to find something important…" she trailed off when Tsunade pinched her eyebrows in realization of where he had gone off to.

"Probably, he went to search for the herbs I was teaching him about in his medical lessons after I went for a nap, that boy is just too curious for his own good sometimes…." she mumbled, no doubt not in a good mood.

Shizune giggled and shook her head when Tsunade plopped down on the dining table with her forehead resting on the hardwood, letting out a tired sigh.

Naruto always seemed to do this over the past few weeks, ever since Tsunade had started to teach him about some basic herbs. As soon as she finished her lesson, the boy would be off into the widespread clearing of the estate to find one, no matter if it could be found in these regions or not. And it annoyed Tsunade to no end when almost every time he would return with the herb that even the best medic-nins would be hard-pressed to find in these regions.

The boy had luck made of gold and was a walking rabbit's foot in her mother's eyes, who had even suggested getting him a job at the casinos as a luck expert.

"He'll be back my lady, why don't you have some coffee till then?" Shizune handed her the cup, which the blonde woman took tiredly. Shizune couldn't help but giggle, take away Naruto from her, and it would be as if she had been drained entirely off her energy.

"Kaa-chan?" a soft voice rang in the kitchen, making Tsunade perk up in an instant, whipping her head around. Shizune too turned her gaze, and both ladies let out gasps at the same time.

Naruto stood there, barely recognizable with all the mud covering his whole appearance, except for the rare lock or two of his shiny golden hair that were still making him a bit recognizable.

"Naru-chan, what happened to you?" She asked and was checking him all over to see if he was hurt or anything. But she was surprised when the boy pulled out his hands from behind his back to show them the flower he had extracted from the ground carefully so as to not hurt its roots and allowing it to be potted in a pot again.

"See, I found the Violet Calendula you told me about in the morning, isn't it pretty?" he asked, making both ladies have their eyes widen in shock. It was an extremely rare herb used to heal poisons from the most venomous of spiders found in the eastern regions of the Land of Fire and was expensive as hell at that.

Though when her honey brown eyes looked at those innocently curious baby blue eyes along with his muddy smile, she couldn't help but giggle in her hand. Shizune, too, was stifling her giggles in her sleeve, making him quite confused, which he showed by tilting his head cutely to the side.

"Did I find the wrong one?" he asked in a small voice, making their laughs cease only to see his nervous eyes staring down at the floor. Both realized he was thinking they were laughing at him to make fun of his failure and smiled at the innocent boy lovingly.

Tsunade caught his chin in her fingers and started wiping his face to bring out the fair skin and whiskers that were hiding underneath all the mud before planting a soft kiss on them, making him smile.

"You never cease to surprise me, Naru-chan. You found the right one yet again. I swear you'll take my title of the 'Queen of Elixirs' pretty soon and become a 'Prince of elixirs.' yourself." she said, bashfully making the blonde smile joyfully and his eyes sparkled in excitement.

"Really?" he asked happily, and she nodded with a smile, working on cleaning off his face with her kimono sleeves. Her expensive kimono lay ruined, but she couldn't care less about the article of clothing, his smiles and ticklish giggles were all worth it in her eyes.

"Now you have to take a bath to cleaned up…" was all she could say before the boy slipped out of her fingers expertly, and her eyes widened when he ran out with a joyful laugh.

Shizune giggle already knowing what would happen now, for it had become quite a common occurrence in the estate.

"Naruto, NO, don't you dare!" Tsunade shouted and gave chase to the boy as their laughs and shouts rang in the halls.

Shizune wiped her hands clean off the towel and ran out behind her blonde master to witness the moments she loved so much. Her hands now slipped a camera on her way out unknown to the two of them.

She wasn't letting this moment go like this without capturing it for life.

"Naruto!" Tsunade exclaimed her arms outstretched to catch the boy who ducked under her grasp at the last point with a laugh, and she growled.

"Hahaha, you won't catch me, Kaa-chan!" he shouted proudly, making her smile knowingly how she always let him do what he wanted even if she could have caught the boy in a moment had she wanted to. But his happiness was precious to her, she was saving his innocence with him wholly hidden from the world outside.

Naruto looked back when he jumped out the porch and towards the lake, to see his mother hot on his trails and dashed onward. He pulled out a scroll, bit his thumb, and smeared the little drop of blood on the page, making her eyes widen, now she had to catch him quickly.

"Ninja Art: limited Summoning Jutsu!" his voice rang in the clearing when he jumped into the air and flipped to place the seal between himself and the ground before letting out a short burst of chakra to throw him up and complete his acrobatic flip.

Kanji covered a circle on the ground where he had touched the ground, and in a puff of smoke, a quite confused, orange, human-sized toad looking around for his summoner.

"Oi Kichi! Let's go!" he heard a shout only to see his favorite little blonde going towards the lake, and he grinned, jumping off with a dust cloud in his wake straight in front of the blonde who hopped on his back and the toad let out another mighty jump straight to the center of the lake.

"Cannonball!" both shouted with laughs, and Tsunade stopped near the shore, to cover her eyes with her sleeves.

SPLASH!

Naruto came out of the rippling water of the lake and shook his head clean of the water with the toad under him doing the same. Both laughed, seeing the half drenched Tsunade standing there, glaring at them angrily.

"Naruto…" she whispered in a low voice, but the blonde heard it clearly, and his laughing stopped.

SLAP SLAP SLAP

"Oi! That hurts!" the orange toad exclaimed, rubbing his head where the blonde boy was slapping it harshly.

"Run, you idiot!" Naruto hissed, making the toad raise an eyebrow. But his eyes widened when he saw Tsunade take a step on the water, and he turned around with a nod.

"On it, bro!" the toad exclaimed and started swimming away from the angry mother who was running on the water after them.

But it was all for naught when Gamakichi crashed into something as soon as he turned around, and both shrunk comically to see Tsunade standing there intimidatingly with her hands on her hips. They knew what was coming next.

"How many times have I told you two? No cannonballs, they can hurt you. The next time I see that pervert who gave you a personal contract and gave you a summoning so soon without my permission, I swear he'll beg for death when I'm done with him." she scolded the two who looked down on the water surface to not aggravate her anymore.

Naruto knew his mother only got angry when he tried to do something that would hurt himself, and he stretched out his arms to his mother, who was standing in front of him.

Her eyes softened, and she caught his armpits in her palms and scooped the boy who hid his face in her neck and sweetly apologized, "I'm sorry." she heard his small whisper, and Tsunade let out a smile and ran her finger through his now immaculate and silky hair. She knew he always manipulated her like that with his adorable cuteness, but she couldn't help but fall for it every time.

"I'm worried about you Naruto, why do you always have to do it each time?" she asked softly, making him curl up in her embrace all the more.

"'Cause it's fun to see you chase me, and then you hug me," he said as if it was a world known fact making her laugh wholeheartedly.

"Is that right?" she asked playfully and giggled when he let out a cute 'Hai!" in her neck. Her fist bonked the toad's head gently, making him rub his head childishly.

"And you should at least not play along." she scolded the toad who nodded mumbling about unfair and scary mothers destroying their fun plans.

"What did you say?" she asked with narrowed eyes and growled when the toad dispelled itself with a laugh.

Shizune put down her camera, having exhausted her new reel just now, but she caught each moment perfectly. Oh, she had a new section for her scrapbook now when she got them developed!

Tsunade walked in with Naruto still in her arms, to get changed out from their drenched clothes. She walked into her bedroom and put him down as he rummaged through his drawer to pick out dry clothes for himself, and Tsunade walked behind the dressing plank kept in the corner and started to put on her new kimono.

"Naruto, how do you always find the herbs you're looking for?" she asked, slipping out of her clothes while Naruto changed in the bathroom.

"Dunno…" his muffled voice from the bathroom came, making her smile at his honest answer. She knew he was lucky, but the last couple of herbs had been one of the rarer ones that even seasoned medics had problems searching for. But he could find them as if he had already marked in his mind where they were to be found and came back with the one she would have taught him about to start making an elixir out of them.

But this was too lucky to be a pure coincidence now.

"I can tell where I could most probably find the plant I'm looking for most of the time, and then I go there and look for it until I've found one," he answered, making her hum in thought while she tied her obi to the kimono.

'He can tell where he'll probably find them. Hmm, interesting answer, but it really is a great sense to have for a medic to have along with his lucky guesses.'. She mused coming out, tying her now dry hair in a simple loose bun and saw Naruto coming out in a small red T-shirt and black pants with the Senju clan symbol donned on his right bicep's sleeve.

He was going to be a ladies man for sure when he grew up, but she would be putting them out with a stick if they turned to her son's innocence.

She then looked to the arm wrappings on his left forearm in the form an arm warmer outstretched with a fingerless glove stitched to its end, entirely white, making it look more like an accessory to the boy's clothes.

"Naruto, you don't have to wear it in the estate, you know…" she admonished him, and he nodded with a smile.

"But I like it!" he said happily, making her giggle and nod. She rose an eyebrow when Shizune knocked and came in their room with the plant from earlier now resting in a pot safely.

"Lady Tsunade I potted this plant, should I keep it with the other?" she asked, and Tsunade nodded with a smile. Shizune hurried out to the small herb garden they had and kept it on the shelves having the rare species of herbs in pots so as not to get any pests ruining them if buried in the grounds since they were already too hard to find.

The collection had become quite large now, with Naruto adding a couple more to the already vast collection that Tsunade had bought of some essential herbs from their nearby village to teach him the real art of poisons and elixirs.

"Wow, it is getting quite a large collection, isn't it, Shizune?" Tsunade asked the hint of pride in her voice not lost to her apprentice, who nodded happily. After all, being a medic herself, she knew how precious such an extensive collection of herbs could be in a time of need.

"Indeed, Naruto takes after you even more so than me, Lady Tsunade. Especially in the arts of poisons and elixirs," she said, making Tsunade beam with pride. Her adorable ball of sunshine really did absorb everything she taught like a sponge to water. She had no doubt he would surpass her soon enough when she had no more to teach him, and he began building up his own batches of poisons and elixirs.

"That he does…" she said, and Shizune smile, hearing the pure adoration in her voice.

"Kaa-chan should I take this?" a cheerful voice came from their side to see Naruto holding up a scissor and a petal of another flower in his hand. Tsunade nodded and smiled, showing him which ones to pick to counter a poison found in the most common of reptilians, which they could now make with the addition of their latest plant.

"Alright, Naru-chan, now I'll let you prepare the elixir this time. Some hands-on experience will come in handy to learn from now on," she said and giggled when he beamed and nodded joyfully.

She crouched down on the ground nearby and placed her palm on a small patch of grassy land. Her wrist twisted, manipulating the earth with some Doton chakra to bend the earth and form a small pit there.

She watched Naruto's pouting face and giggled. He had been pestering her to teach him that, but she wouldn't give in just yet and have him do training all the time instead of enjoying like he should at his age.

"No, I'm not teaching it to you yet, Naru-chan. First, you'll complete water manipulation before you move on to earth. Not even a simple jutsu until then, and no more of those doe Puppy dog eyes…" she admonished him before he could protest, making him sulk and pull out some grass sullenly.

"But you don't let me take any plants in my room, and now you don't teach me this…" he whispered sadly, making her heart tear away at the innocence and sadness laced in his voice. She knew he was sad when she had stopped him from taking any plants in his room like he wanted to in the past few weeks.

The boy loved them like his own pets, but she couldn't have him turn the house into a forest which could have been harmful mind you, with all the various oxidants the plants released at night, which she was sure he would turn the house into with all the plants he was always scouring out that he loved.

Her heart tore away, seeing his shimmering eyes, and she had half a mind to let him grow a damn tree in her bedroom rather than see him like that.

"Naruto…" she called out, making him look at her with a soft sniffle that made him look all the more adorable in her eyes.

"I'll teach you how to heal cuts and scrapes with the basic stages of my mystical palm jutsu if you listen to me, alright?" she asked and giggled when he blurred into her chest and squeezed her for dear life.

"You're the best Kaa-chan!" he exclaimed happily, and she let out a small laugh kissing his head gently and smiled when he turned back to his lesson.

She watched him put all the petals and roots in the pit as she told him to in the hard concrete pit. She snapped her fingers under the leaves of the Violet Calendula to spark them alight gently with the precision only an experience medic like her could have.

She put out the small fire in her fingers as soon as they turned to pink ash before she ruined the process and precious herb as well. Her eyes turned up to her boy to instruct him on the next step when she saw his full, shimmering doe looking puppy dog eyes looking at her pleadingly.

She slapped her hand on her forehead and sighed tiredly. There was only one thing that the boy found more interesting than the little Doton manipulation she did for the pit. And that was the little Katon manipulation exercise she used for her elixirs. But she couldn't have him light the house on fire if she started teaching him that knowing how he would practice it even in his room until he had mastered it.

But she had to give him something else he would be saddened even more with all the chakra control exercises she had been putting him through the past year.

"Alright, Naru-chan, if you complete the water walking exercise this week, I'll let you have a small Suiton ninjutsu along with my Mystical Palm jutsu's first stage, deal?" she asked and laughed when the boy brightened up, and his fake tears lay forgotten. The boy was too curious for her own good was what she told herself like always.

She watched how her son manipulated the water around his hands straight out of the vapors in the air and turned them into a small glob of water hovering above his palms. She watched on mystified as he played with it as if it was a toy, not knowing he was manipulating the element to a degree most would give their arms for as if it was a plaything to him.

"Is this enough, Kaa-chan?" he asked, breaking her out of her thoughts, and she nodded. Most medics taught to make elixirs in sterilized porcelain bowls, but she was teaching him this way so he could be ready to make anything anywhere if the situation called for it and not be bounded by the lack of equipment found in hospitals like some of the lesser accomplished but respected and non-field medics out there.

The blonde boy put the small glob in the pit, and Tsunade handed him a small cylindrical stone she had manipulated out of the ground out of his eyeshot to not arouse any more of his curiosity. She smiled, seeing him knead the thick and pinkish-blue elixir to its final stages.

She held out a test tube and watched with pride as he manipulated the liquid of the thick elixir expertly with his palms and didn't even waste a drop of it before pouring it down in the glassed vessel. She put a cork over it and smiled in pride.

"And that is your finalized elixir for most of the mid reptilian poisons found in the eastern parts of the Land of Fire," she said, waving the test tube and watching his fascinated face with that adorable smile on his face. She kept the tube in her sleeve to store it in her cryogenic storage in her basement for reservation for future use where she would put it later on and walked into the house for dinner as Shizune had called them in and pulled the boy's head in her stomach as they walked in.

"I'm proud of you, baby, you're growing so much in such less time," she whispered, making him smile at making his mother proud. But Tsunade wasn't mincing words. It took years of research and hard studying before medics even started on the preparation of elixirs, but the boy crammed them up as if they were bread and butter to him, and she couldn't be prouder of his growth.

Most medics never even delved into these sciences and just learned jutsus to extract the poisons from their patients and try and stabilize their patients with medical chakra until his immune system kicked in, which lead to many fatal casualties in their field.

If only everyone took their fields as seriously as herself, Shizune and her baby boy, so many lives could be saved…

"Kaa-chan, what are we going to do tomorrow?" came the soft voice of her boy who was looking up at her spaced-out face innocently, and she ruffled his hair, getting some cute giggles from the boy.

"I'll start you up on the conversion of your normal chakra towards the medical one. It's great that you have such a strong Water affinity. It is the best thing a medic could possibly dream of since it makes many advance branches of our fields open up to you instantly without the need of putting up with numerous months of mastering the element before you move to the real thing.". She spoke to him in a wise tone making him nod and smile.

"Then maybe we can start working on real people in Ueki village's small clinic. You could learn hands-on with real patients as well as help the villagers at the same time. Me and Shizune could take the serious cases too since it has been quite some time, and we need to keep ourselves sharp too." she told him and watched him perk up at the mention of going out. She knew to keep him to herself wasn't the best thing, but she wanted to keep him as safe as possible from any and all dangers.

But she realized he needed to see a little of the outside world too if he had to grow out of his childlike innocence and shell he had around him. Not that she wanted him to anyways, but it had to be done, and some social interaction with others was necessary too.

They sat and had dinner in the comfortable silence that is until there was a puff of smoke by their side along with sounds of clanking wooden sandals. Both ladies sighed tiredly, but Naruto perked up with a smile.

"Ladies hold your horses because the manly charm of the Gallant Toad Sage Jiraiya has arrived!" came the boastful exclamation of the Toad sage who waved his hair proudly and did a Kabuki pose. Naruto clapped happily at his performance that he liked very much, and each time, the man prepared a new dance form just for him.

"Pervy Sage!" the blonde boy exclaimed, making the man face fault from the embarrassed samurai toad underneath him while the ladies in the room chuckled loudly at his expense.

"Don't call me that you damn brat!" he scolded him half-heartedly while the boy just grinned his foxy grin. Tsunade told him to keep that nickname for his godfather, and the man cried anime tears at the lack of respect they had for him. Men kissed his toes for the classic literature he wrote, but his own family members had no respect for him, he cried out comically.

Jiraiya watched on in jealousy as the boy hugged his mother and snuggled in her chest and slumped asleep, Jiraiya, he drooled at the thought of him being there, how lucky the boy really was to enjoy those melony jugs he mused. Shizune glared at the man in disgust before a plate met his face, and he fell down back from his chair and twitched on the ground.

"You damned pervert, get your thoughts about my boy out of the gutter before I sock you halfway through the elemental nations." Tsunade fired in her usual way, and Shizune giggled as the man mumbled something with a dazed look, clearly out of his senses.

She tucked Naruto into his bed, planting a kiss on his head and smiled at his soundly sleeping face that looked so cute. She wanted to sleep with him herself, but the pervert must have come for something important, that much she knew.

She took her chair back and saw his face now completely serious and without any signs of joy in them, and her own face mirrored his.

"Hime, many people are looking for him now. Especially, Kumo and Iwa, now that their forces are back up to strength. Kumo wants the Uzumaki blood in their mists now that someone is out of the eyes of the village, and Iwa want the Yondaime's Heir to themselves or be eliminated altogether before he rises up to the strengths of his father." he said making her heart drop. She had half a mind to drop his outings straight out for his safety, but her eyes narrowed before steeling themselves.

"Be careful hime, and especially don't take him outside for now. The most dangerous thing is that some people, dangerous people, are banding together for some cause, and Naruto, along with the twins, is on their list that they are gathering information on. I don't know what for, but I do know they are looking quite intently on Naruto, which means…" he warned her, and she nodded, understanding his point completely.

"They are looking for his tenant?" she surmised, making Shizune's eyes widen in horror. Who could want such an uncontrollable force of nature for themselves?

"So be careful, alright?" he asked again, and she nodded, pursing her lips. She had to take him out, he had been asking her if he could, and it won't be long before he tried some stunt himself in recklessness before he ran out to see the world for himself and did something stupid. So it was better if he did it when he was with her.

"I'll keep that in mind, thanks, Jiraiya," she said curtly, making the man smile obviously satisfied with her answer.

"What is this group that is banding together?" she asked him, already dreading the answer seeing his solemn face.

"I haven't been able to scour much since they keep quite close tabs and are a relatively small group of a handful of people, but the group consists of all criminals at least S-rank," he answered her, making her eyes widen in horror. It was relatively unheard of since there weren't many S-rank missing-nin, to begin with, but to be able to put their differences aside and work along with each other?

Shizune knew what S-rank criminals were capable of. A shinobi was only given an S-rank rating if he was able to harm at least a battalion of shinobi all on their own and still come out breathing. So a group could possibly take down even some minor shinobi villages, if not major ones.

And these people were looking for Naruto, both thought dreadfully at the same time. Jiraiya sipped his water, letting the females take it all in before he spoke up on the topic he needed to raise with her.

"Hime…" he called out softly and saw her eyes on guard almost instantly. It hurt him to see it, but he knew she was the one who possibly knew him the best after all these years. Tsunade knew whenever he called her, he would demand something she would obviously refuse. And this most probably involved her baby boy if she knew him like she did.

"We have to up Naruto's training hime, medic training's fine and all, but he must be trained in Nin…" he trailed off when she stood up abruptly and turned around.

"He is fine as he is, this matter is finished. You may take the guest room if you wish to stay the night…" she was cut off when Jiraiya stood up to, a stern expression on his face that showed he wasn't backing down no matter what.

"Tsunade…" he said with such seriousness it made Shizune shiver seeing the tension in the room rise when the two Sannin flared up their tempers at the same time and glared at each other dangerously.

"There are people, dangerous people after him. Healing won't stop them, no matter how great a medic he is. He needs combat…" he was cut off when her glare intensified.

"If healing won't, then my fists will." she snarled back, and he glared right back heatedly.

"And how long will you protect him and keep him under your arms, coddling him like a baby…" he hissed angrily at her stubborn disposition.

"As long as I breathe, that long." she hissed right back both of their palms now on the tables, and Shizune gulped and sweated when they unknowingly raised their killing intents and flared their chakras.

"Tsunade, think about what you're saying, he needs the training and combat experience to protect himself and become a fine Leaf shinobi in the future. He is my godson…" that was the wrong thing to say since as soon as he told Leaf shinobi and godson, her temper flared to insurmountable levels.

"AND HE IS MY SON!" she shouted back at him with humongous amounts of killing intent, making even him flinch as she raised her fist and tore apart the dining table in half cleanly with her super-strength punch. "You bastards want to take his childhood away and push him into training like a weapon so that he could be the man Minato was twenty years his superior in under five years. He will do as he wants, and as I want," she said firmly, making him scowl.

"Even Kushina agreed to double up their training," he said, and she was barely holding back punching him through straight into the Hokage's office now.

"She can do whatever the hell she wants. He is my son, and I will do what is…" their banter stopped when they heard a small sob and even Shizune who had jumped back after the breaking of the table, looked to the doorway to see a quivering Naruto with his knees to his chest, crying his heart out.

Both adults realized their chakra levels and killing intent and instantly suppressed them. Naruto woke up after the sound of a table breaking. In search of his mother, he went to the source of the sound. When he gazed upon the two, suddenly, visions of death flashed in his eyes. He had only felt this scared once before.

Tsunade picked the boy upon her lap and cooed him, rocking him and whispering sweet nothings into his ear for her lack of control on her temper. The pure killing intent of a Sannin would scare any child no matter who he was.

"I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry…" she whispered, kissing his face with little butterfly kisses to calm the hysterically crying boy down. Jiraiya himself felt ashamed to let loose his killing intent so easily and scaring his own godson at that.

"Tsunade I'm…" he tried to apologize when he saw her shimmering eyes with unshed tears and the pure fury behind them.

"Leave," she whispered coldly, making words dry down in his throat. The Toad sage said nothing and walked out, disappearing in a smokeless Shunshin. Tsunade hugged the boy who had fallen unconscious from the pure fear he must have felt and rubbed his head softly.

No matter what he said, she knew he was right. But his way of just training him into the ground wasn't what she was going to do, though she did know what the boy needed now and how it had been brought closer for what she wanted to train him in the future. There was no training that could prepare him to take on S-rank criminals without years of training and pure field combat experience, but she could give him a small ace in the hole that would keep him safe for the time being.

(Authors note)

Pretty basic chapter not much to change. Although I wanted to extend the chapter further, I saw it best to make the next chapter wholly unique from the original. The following section will be training centric and cover what has been glossed over. I tend to over-analyze the naruto world, so the paragraphs are a bit lengthy and include my ideas for chakra and how they actually training chakra control. I really want a training chapter so that naruto does not continually get stronger through implied training, but rather trains and is implied to be stronger.